Friday, September 28, 2012

No One Eat(s) Smallmouth Bass!

I am going make a video game analogy. Bear with me. Madden NFL series of games, as real as they are in simulating professional football, the results end up a cartoon mockery that seldom mimics an actual NFL game.

Basically, most players play it so much they become pretty adept at the game, then it fails to be a simulation. Instead it is an arcade button presser with less strategy dependent more on reaction time and rehearsal.

There's no question we want the arcade version in our river and stream fishing. Gimme action over simulation in my fishing, baby. Thing is, smallmouth bass grow very slowly and have fairly short life spans. A smallmouth bass may take between 4-6 years to reach the 12" mark in Indiana. A fish reaching 12-13 years is a rare specimen. High, muddy water can wipe out entire year classes of fry. The quality of your river fishing hangs in the balance.

Habitat that allows overwintering, survival during flood, spawning ground can be totally destroyed by nature and man. Very few states do anything to fix the smallmouth bass populations so the fishing is good. Now if by some miracle a fisherman does catch a nice smallmouth, no thought to harvest should be taken.

I think we all want to catch 50 18" bass a day on topwaters, right? The only factor we can directly contribute to is quick release of smallmouth bass we do catch. A big smallmouth is just too valuable to fillet and eat. Spread the word.

About Me

Documenting my catch and release river fishing adventures. "Smallmouth in Your Soup" Blog originated as a place to store my fishing adventures and reports for posterity's sake. I am available for consultation on river smallmouth bass knowledge.

All blog content is considered copyrighted material via a Creative Commons License and may not be reproduced without the author's consent. To put it simply, don't copy-paste an entire blog post elsewhere. Feel free to use this information for your own personal fishing experience or share it by word of mouth, but don't pass it off as your own elsewhere on the internet.